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Christopher Dorner, LAPD’s ghosts, and left-wing populism

Christopher Dorner, LAPD’s ghosts, and left-wing populism

Here’s a lesson in the wages of appeasement.

When the manhunt for Christopher Dorner got desperate, LAPD Chief Charlie Beck panicked and announced that he planned to reinvestigate Dorner’s firing which the former cop, according to his Facebook manifesto, blamed on racism.

Beck insisted that the new inquiry wasn’t intended to appease the man being sought for multiple murders, but was instead initiated to address what he called “the ghosts of the LAPD’s past.”

It was a foolish thing to do.  Out came the crazies who’d just been granted legitimacy by Beck’s so-called reinvestigation. Their outpouring of sympathy was accurately described by Ta-Nehisi Coates, in The Atlantic, as:

an attempt to redeem Christopher Dorner’s murderous rampage. These redemption narratives, from what I can tell, are a mish-mash of cynicism, anger and left-wing populism.

To bolster his point, Coates links to a Mediaite story about a panel discussion on CNN:

Two of CNN’s panel guests said that Dorner’s murder spree exposed the issue of “police brutality.” One contributor said that Dorner’s escapades reminded him of watching “Django Unchained in real life.” …

“There’s no waste here, though,” Marc Lamont Hill, host of HuffPost Live and associate professor with Columbia University, interjected. “This has been an important conversation that we’ve had about police brutality, about police corruption, about state violence.” …

Hill later said that the Dorner exposed the corruption within the Los Angeles Police Department.

Poppycock.

Thanks to the 1965 and 1992 riots, as well as movies like L.A. Confidential, most people know that the LAPD was historically hated in L.A.’s black communities.  And for good reason.  The breathtaking extent of the brutality decades ago was only part of the problem.  There were also daily civil-rights violations committed with disturbing casualness.

By degrees, Los Angeles of the 1950s and ‘60s was as segregated as say, Selma, Alabama—something that I, a white male growing up in mid-city L.A. then, was wholly ignorant of until I researched my true-crime book L.A. ’56: A Devil in the City of Angels, about the manhunt for a black serial rapist who terrorized the city’s lovers’ lanes throughout the summer of 1956.  What I learned was that those “ghosts” Chief Beck spoke of are scarier and more numerous than almost anyone unaffected by them at the time can imagine.

Part of my research entailed reading archived issues of the city’s two black weeklies from that era, the (now defunct) California Eagle  and the Los Angeles Sentinel.  Like the crime spree described in L.A. ’56, the stories these papers covered were rarely, if ever, published in the “white” dailies of the era (TimesMirrorHerald-Express, Examiner).  So the average white resident of Los Angeles (like me) could continue to think of his still burgeoning city as a little bit of heaven because he missed, for example, the woeful tale of Wilson White.

A black WWII vet who’d lost his sight in battle, Mr. White was leaving a Blinded Veterans Association gathering at the American Legion Hall when LAPD cops dragged him from his car, accused him of public drunkenness and resisting arrest, and beat on him in full view of others.

His wife, her broken ankle in a cast, jumped from the driver’s seat and pleaded with the (white) cops to stop attacking her defenseless husband.  In response, they handcuffed her from behind and made her walk without crutches.  A jury found Mr. White guilty of disturbing the peace.

Then there was the partial paralysis of Willie C. Washington, caused by an off-duty cop who, without warning, whacked him from behind then pinned the fallen man’s face to the street with his boot; the beating administered to Norva Hill by cops who followed her to her residential hotel; and the re-arrest of two teenage boys, on the courthouse steps, for marijuana possession by the original arresting officer who three minutes before had angrily watched a judge dismiss the charges for lack of evidence.

And so on, just from summer 1956. I came upon so many stomach-churning stories like these (including cross burnings) that I ended up using selections from several as standalone chapters in order to better depict the time and mood.  All, as it happens, were of a piece with the infuriating saga of Todd Roark, one of my book’s main characters, a black former LAPD cop who’d been fired for dating a white woman just before being wrongly accused by cops who wanted to believe that he had committed these horrendous crimes.  Though clearly exonerated, his life was ruined by the accusation.

When L.A. ’56 was published last April, my first book signing was at Eso Won Books, in Leimert Park, a historically black section of town.  About 50 people showed up, 45 of them black.  I spoke for a while and explained, among other things, how I had come to hear this otherwise unreported story from the man who’d cracked the case, Mexican-American detective Danny Galindo, whose career stretched from the Black Dahlia to the Manson murders.  Then I asked if there were any questions.

A black man of about 40 raised his hand. “I just want to say thank you,” he said, identifying himself as a resident of the inner-city.  “For years my parents told me how bad things were back then, and I just never believed them. Now I do.”

Whatever else this man’s comment might have meant, it strongly suggested that today is not yesterday and that the “ghosts of the LAPD’s past” played no role in the firing of Christopher Dorner.  Chief Beck ought to have let them rest in hell.

Let that be a lesson.

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Comments

Based on my experiences with an LAPD sergeant, who bragged to me about LAPD racism and even had photo-albums celebrating it (which he was glad to show me) – this was in mid 90s – I don’t think they are ghosts. They are alive and well and living in LAPD. I was pretty disgusted then, and still am today, by what he told me.

One does not change corporate cultures very fast, if at all. Plenty of management studies showing this. In fact, usually one has to hire strictly from outside, and build up an entirely new culture over a period of decades.

Sadly, no investigation will change the culture – it will at most punish a few who were not smart enough to not get caught.

those that are called racist are really people that understood that ‘multiculturalism’ could never work…

anti-racists are anti-whites

Marc Lamont Hill is a racist scumbag. If anyone has forgotten this little gem of his:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marc-lamont-hill/15-overrated-overrated-white-people_b_1948679.html

His racism is cloaked in “Diversity and professorship” but he is still a racist scumbag.

Bet the hoodz won’t be rioting this time around. Dorner has made the police community really really mad.

If any riots broke out right now, officers guns would be loaded with hollowshells and snipers would be on every rooftop with orders: STK.

4000 uniformed cops attended the Riverside officer’s funeral.

    Uncle Samuel in reply to Uncle Samuel. | February 15, 2013 at 8:20 pm

    Outstanding Eulogy for Officer Mike Crain, Riverside Police:
    http://www.standfirminfaith.com/?/sf/page/30094

    “A kind and gentle man…” a Marine, trainer of policemen, devoted husband and proud father.

    RIP, Officer Crain.

    Uncle Samuel in reply to Uncle Samuel. | February 16, 2013 at 6:53 am

    NOTE: I’m not advocating police brutality or wholesale slaughter.

    However, the belief that innocent merchants, white citizens should have to pay for their hurts, that they are entitled to inflict harm, create havoc, destroy and loot businesses, inflict harm pervades some population groups.

    Neither form of evil should be allowed to stand or continue.

    OWS should not have been permitted, praised, tolerated or perpetuated by the leftist civic officials, for that matter.

Felipe Hemming | February 15, 2013 at 8:50 pm

Read the complete case file here underacted and complete, unfiltered than watch the Getler Depo Video, I am no Leftist nor am I anti-police, I expect Justice to be delivered to all regardless of crime, we are a Nation of Laws and this man was screwed by the system for going against the Blue Wall of Silence. http://www.scribd.com/doc/124943341/DORNER-PETITION-LA-SUPERIOR-COURT

    BannedbytheGuardian in reply to Felipe Hemming. | February 15, 2013 at 9:02 pm

    And he became an angel by murdering a 28 year old female basketball coach ( UC Fullerton ) & her fiancé?

    I could equally put forward a theory he attacked them because they were a mixed race couple & that he got the taste for murder & went on.

    Simple really.

    Btw not going to your puss filled site. I don’t want to catch syphillus.

    Henry Hawkins in reply to Felipe Hemming. | February 15, 2013 at 10:32 pm

    Yes, and Charlie Manson once volunteered at a homeless shelter. It didn’t mitigate his later actions.

    And his recent actions prove how wrong the LAPD was in judging him unsuited to be a law enforcement officer … Right?

LAPD is probably the least professional big-city police force in the Western world. I have no doubt that brutality, much (but hardly all) of it racially motivated, is endemic in the department to this very day.

But there is not one single shred of evidence that race had anything to do with Dorner’s termination. He falsely filed a felony complaint against a fellow officer who was innocent. He was a criminal.

And in what universe – besides perhaps Lamont Hill’s – does a “victim” of racism retaliate by murdering the daughter of his defense counsel and her husband?

This guy was pure evil. What demons drove him, I don’t know and care only for academic purposes. Too bad he didn’t just eat a gun to begin with and spare all the innocent lives and property he destroyed on his suicidal spree.

    TrooperJohnSmith in reply to Estragon. | February 16, 2013 at 8:15 am

    The fact that the LAPD has been living under Consent Decrees for what, 20+ years, means that there is always a Monday Morning Quarterback riding in the patrol car or running down a dark alley at 0200 whispering in your ear, “Be careful… and be politically correct.” In those cases, you loose the edge you might need to survive or, at the very least, keep your pension.

    At some point, LA has got to give law enforcement back to the people selected, trained and empowered to do what it becoming a more and more thankless job.

    The big trouble with the po-lice, is that they are drawn from the ranks of fallible human beings. Consent Decrees won’t fix that.

    An absolutely ridiculous statement. Baseless.

    Radegunda in reply to Estragon. | February 16, 2013 at 11:34 am

    “He falsely filed a felony complaint against a fellow officer who was innocent.”
    One of Dorner’s defenders suggested that he was justified in being murderously enraged because the LAPD had taken away “his good name.” Somehow the good name of the colleague he slimed (and who apparently did not respond with a murderous rampage) got lost in the analysis.

Too many absolutes flying around here-

Dorner evil=LAPD good

LAPD evil=Dorner justified

Examine the history of “race” among police departments all you want. Yep.

I’d rather somebody examine what’s being taught in the police academies today. Skin color doesn’t matter so much, as we are all “enemies”, especially our dogs.

The LAPD did themselves no favor by announcing they’d reopen the investigation. They also reinforced the popular characterization of the LAPD as a bunch of thugs when they opened fire on two vehicles that did not match the description of Dorner’s vehicle being driven by people who did not match the description of Dorner. When you serve the public, it’s never a good idea to project an US vs THEM mentality.

Lots of inaccurate comments here about the LAPD.

Few know outside the LAPD know that the department is a department of ‘color,’ and that former criminal defense attorney Gerald Chaleff works at the highest level of the department in the role as ‘Police Administrator Special Assistant for Constitutional Policing.’ (I’ve met him — I’ve been in his office.)
http://www.lapdonline.org/home/comm_bio_view/7588

They are an extremely professional and highly capable organization, doing an amazing job of policing a giant city with a relatively small department.

The idiot in Los Angeles policing is Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca. Despite him, the Sheriff’s department also does an incredible job of policing the county.

It was dumb for the Chief Beck to open the case again, but that was his liberalism at work.

This attack on the LAPD is just more of the continuing leftist Obama-ish crap aimed at destroying the foundations of American society.

The focus should remain on this incompetent lunatic (yes, he was incompetent — )
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2013/02/ap-repeated-gaffes-halted-ex-cop-dorner-rampage-021413/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter
— and the leftist head-cases who ‘support’ him. If you want to know what L.A. would look like if these lunatics controlled the police department, look no further than the shape of the US military as commanded by an incompetent lunatic calling himself ‘Barack Obama.’

Take a look at the LAPD command staff:
http://www.lapdonline.org/lapd_command_staff
It is an excellent mix of Latino, black and females. Just to show you they don’t discriminate, you’ll even see some white males.

    Seriously, what moron clicked ‘thumbs down’ after seeing the photos of the LAPD command staff?

    You should have backed up that incredibly stupid statement, or you should have not have made it at all. Unless, of course, you’re simply here for sabotage purposes.

Interestingly, although it is usually not mentioned, the training officer who was the target of Dorner’s accusations is a female. What is not known is what race she is.

It would be a hoot if it turned out that she is a black female. I lean toward believing that could be the case precisely because of the “LAPD Ghosts” that are cited in the articles. I personally have some doubt that the LAPD would put a white woman in a position to evaluate a black man’s fitness to wear the badge. Just seems to be asking for trouble in many ways.

Wonder if we will ever know the truth.

It sure seems that the Left will make crazy excuses for a murderous black man with a gun.

    Who wouldn’t make excuses from someone living your fantasy?

    Maybe that’s why so many Obama zombies look the other way at the banana republic behavior of the Obamas in looting the US treasury to support a their absurd lifestyle.

The nation’s top cop sold a couple thousand “assault weapons” to Mexican drug cartels, but I don’t see the media “bravely” lift their pens or voices against Holder. And when the New Black Panthers put a bounty on Zimmerman’s head, the media seemed to approve.

The left picks some strange heroes, finding affection for this killer and OWS, but demonizing peaceful Tea Partiers that just want DC to stop robbing them and their children blind.

White officers make up less than half of LAPD’s force. With integration, including a large percentage of female officers, LAPD is nothing like it was in the past.

Chief Beck, admirable in some ways, has also proved to be a sucker for political correctness at times.

I winced everytime our intranet homepage opened at work and, after a few seconds of “Merry Christmas” and “Happy Hanukkah” … there appeared “Happy Kwanzaa” given equal time.

Kwanzaa, ironically, is the creation of a felon.